‘Banana Peel’, ‘Shrimp Moss’, Friedmann Equations: How China Is Protesting Zero-Covid With Wordplay

With crowds at some places also explicitly calling for Xi Jinping to step down, China has not seen such widespread protests since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest

Protest in Beijing against China's strict zero-Covid policy.

Source : Getty

The draconian “zero COVID” programme of the Xi Jinping administration in China has resulted in an unprecedented wave of public anger, with protesters taking to the streets of different cities including capital Beijing and a number of university campuses over the weekend, several international news agencies reported. The demonstrators could be seen not scared to confront the police, with some even shouting “Xi Jinping should step down” — something that is deemed seditious and could invite prison term for years under Chinese laws, an AP report said. 

China has not seen such widespread protests for decades since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest led by students part of a pro-democracy movement that the army neutralised with deadly force. Xi’s Communist Party has ruled China for 73 years, and the president granted himself new powers only a month ago at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress to effectively make himself the country’s potential leader for life.

In October, just before the CCP Congress, a solo protester in Beijing had put up a banner, which said: "No to Covid tests, yes to freedom". The slogan made a comeback during the protests over the weekend as many shouted the line, even as crowds at some places explicitly called for Xi to step down. 

The protests are also happening at a time when China’s “zero COVID” programme, under which people are kept in a virtual house arrest lasting months, is set to enter its fourth year. Experts have said the measures are neither scientific nor effective, according to reports.

In videos of the protests being shared widely on social media, the demonstrators could be seen chanting slogans, with their anger centred around the strict lockdowns. The AP report said the protesters were frustrated over the system “that is neither performing as promised or responding to their concerns”.

A viral video purportedly showed students at a university singing "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies", originally sung by Cantonese pop band Beyond. The same song, an ode to freedom, had been adopted by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong that saw widespread demonstrations before the pandemic. The video was taken down by censors, AFP reported. 

The protesters, meanwhile, devised different novel ways to put across their disappointment with the authorities and their zero-Covid policy, even as they tried to evade censorship. While some held up blank pieces of paper, others resorted to complex wordplays, and many took to music and sarcasm. Those more cautious held silent protests and offered flowers and candles to pay respect to the victims of last week’s deadly Xinjiang fire that prompted these protests. The fire that killed 10 people triggered the protests after allegations that firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic controls. 

Here is a look at how the Chinese demonstrators expressed their anger:

Blank Sheets To Wordplay, Sarcasm 

In apparent reference to the lack of free speech in China, protesters across China could be seen holding up blank sheets of white paper. On social media, WeChat users posted white squares on their profiles, AFP reported.

Some images going viral on the internet show Friedmann equations on signs held up by students from top Chinese university Tsinghua showing Friedmann equations. According to the AFP report, physicist Friedmann was chosen to be featured in the signs for the similarity between his name and the word "freed man" or "freedom".

Social media posts, meanwhile, were full of wordplay.  

With the authorities blocking such obvious keywords from internet searches, the report said, WeChat and Weibo saw a barrage of what it called “nonsensical posts” containing repeated words with "positive" meanings — "right right right right right" and "good good good" for example.

The AFP report said many of these posts and also references to "A4 paper" had been wiped off the social media sites by Monday. 

Wordplay, however, continued with social media users writing words like "banana peel" in Chinese, as the phrase has the same initials as Xi Jinping, and also "shrimp moss", which sounds similar to "step down" in Chinese, the report said.

Sarcasm was also at play as people sought to resort to different ways to lodge their protest. 

In Beijing, AFP reported, a crowd shouted Sunday night: "I want to do Covid tests! I want to scan my health code." Taking inspiration, several Weibo users posted similar phrases in sarcastic tone.

Also doing the rounds of social media were video clips of Xi and his quotes repurposed in support of the protests. One of the clips has him saying: "Now the Chinese people are organised and aren't to be trifled with."

National Anthem, Memes, VPN 

At multiple locations across China, groups reportedly sang the national anthem, pre-empting charges by the authorities that the protests were unpatriotic, or instigated by foreign forces.

Beijing did later blame “forces with ulterior motives” for the unrest, with foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian saying: “...on social media, there are forces with ulterior motives that relate this fire with the local response to Covid-19.” 

It was also a meme fest on social media about the ongoing World Cup in Qatar, with netizens using images of football fans without masks to mock China's zero-Covid policy. A now-censored viral video purportedly had audio of people screaming "put your mask on!" and "do a Covid test" overlaid on visuals of cheering spectators, the AFP report said.

While international social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram are blocked in China, many have been able to post updates on the protests using special Virtual Private Network (VPN) software.

According to the report, anonymous Twitter accounts have opened up their DMs inviting videos from across the country. Instagram also saw several livestreams of the protests.

Chinese students studying abroad have also organised similar demonstrations in support of their people back home. The AFP report said one Instagram video showed protesters had put up a mock street sign from Urumqi Road in Shanghai outside China's consulate in the Canadian city of Toronto.